Pushing Daisies/Recap/S1 E3 The Fun in Funeral

The Past

Ned experiments with his gift to learn how it works. He discovers the one-minute grace period by killing some fireflies; horrified, he vows to never again keep something alive again for longer than a minute.

The Present

Emerson's latest case has personal implications for Ned: it's an investigation into the untimely death of the Coeur d'Coeurs funeral home owner, the one who died in Equivalent Exchange for Chuck's life.

Leaving the Pie Hole in the care of Olive--who is unaware that she is being flirted with by homeopathic salesman Alfredo Alvarisio--the three investigators speak with the deceased's brother, eager to learn the location of the loot he'd stolen from corpses.

Some time later, Ned finds an unpleasant surprise in his freezer: the surviving funeral home owner, now dead and placed so as to frame Ned. The three investigators, surmising that he died in the Coeur d'Coeurs funeral home and not at the Pie Hole, drive the body back to the funeral home to replace it. There they find Wilfred Woodruff VI, the descendant of a Civil War veteran, whose heirloom sword was stolen by the funeral home owners. He had written a death threat; when he showed up to confront his target only to see him die unexpectedly, he decided to pin it on Ned rather than become a suspect himself.

Wilfred defeated, Ned stumbles across the cache of stolen items, and the three investigators take them back to the Pie Hole and prepare to send each one back to its next of kin.

Tropes

• All-Natural Snake Oil: Olive is wooed by Alfredo the homeopathic remedy salesman. He actually believes in his product, though...
• Artistic License Physics: In-universe. Alfredo thinks that the earth's atmosphere has been leaking away, reducing gravity and affecting volumes around the world (they even adjusted the kilogram standard!...not that the kilogram measures volume...) and that once enough of the atmosphere is gone, there will be worldwide Explosive Decompression, ejecting everyone into the void.
• Butterfly of Doom: Referred to in a non-Time Travel context.
• Chinese Laborer: Fambing Woo, who became Wilfred Woodruff I.
• The Fun in Funeral: Trope Namer
• Gainax Bounce: Consciously averted by Olive, who grabs her breasts to hold them still while she tries to dash away from Chuck's aunts' house.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Kick, Pooh, kick!
• How Do I Shot Web?: The past segment shows Ned testing his power's time limit.
• Lady in Red: Chuck when the trio go to revive and interview the funeral director.
• Malaproper: Olive thinks that "homeopathic" means "relates to gay people".
• Sword Fight
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works
• What the Hell, Hero?: Emerson reiterates his distaste for Ned letting Chuck live, and Chuck gets in on it too once she finds out about the whole Equivalent Exchange bit.